Health & Medicine
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Health & MedicineChanging the paradigm around Alzheimer’s disease
Prevention could begin with lifestyle in younger years, one researcher says during the American Public Health Association meeting.
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Health & MedicineChill-out device may protect brain during heart attacks
A portable method to quickly lower body temperature passes safety tests
By Laura Beil -
LifeNewborn cells clear space in brain’s memory-maker
Rodent study offers first evidence that neurogenesis clears old memories in key part of the brain to make way for new ones.
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LifeGenetic effects suggest FOXP2 role in language evolution
Human version of the protein alters activity of 116 genes compared with the chimp version.
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Health & MedicineThe childhood nerve cancer neuroblastoma shows weakness
A compound that unshackles a tumor-suppressing protein called p53 can slow the growth of the malignancy in mice, a new study finds.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & MedicineVinegar: Label lead-tainting data
Under California’s Proposition 65 law, products containing chemicals that may cause cancer, birth defects or reproductive toxicity must carry a warning label at their point of sale. Among such products: pricy balsamic and red-wine vinegars that contain lead. At least some California groceries apparently have taken a conservative approach and post labels suggesting all such vinegars are dangerously tainted. Although they aren't.
By Janet Raloff -
Health & MedicineH1N1: Call to revise flu-mask policy
Three groups of healthcare professionals sent a letter to President Obama yesterday asking that he instruct his administration to revise federal flu-mask guidance. What these groups want: formal recognition that two studies last month showed conventional surgical masks are about as protective as the fancy — but much more expensive — N95 respirators in limiting H1N1 infection.
By Janet Raloff -
TechHouse passes medical isotopes bill
A spot of encouraging news emerged yesterday on the medical-isotope front. The House of Representatives voted 440 to 17 in favor of a bill to reestablish domestic production of molybdenum-99. It’s the feedstock for the most heavily used nuclear agent in diagnostic medicine.
By Janet Raloff -
Health & MedicineSmallpox — The Death of a Disease
The Inside Story of Eradicating a Worldwide Killer, by D.A. Henderson.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & MedicineBacteria flourish in favorite ecosystems on the human body
Study offers most comprehensive inventory yet of the human microbiome and a basis for understanding how those microbes affect health.
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EarthNanoparticles’ indirect threat to DNA
Tiny metal nanoparticles can damage DNA, essentially by triggering toxic gossip.
By Janet Raloff -
Health & MedicineGenome 10K: A new ark
Featured blog: Researchers are working to catalog the DNA sequences of just about every vertebrate genus.
By Janet Raloff